ERCOT board members to resign, state working to add power, protection to energy grid

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages the flow of electrical power to 26 million Texans and represents about 90% of the state’s electrical load, will have seven board members resign, including the chairman and vice-chairman of the organization.

ERCOT recently has come under fire due to statewide blackouts which occurred after severe winter weather Feb. 14 and continued throughout most of the week. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a statement regarding the resignation of the leadership Tuesday.

“When Texans were in desperate need of electricity, ERCOT failed to do its job and Texans were left shivering in their homes without power. ERCOT leadership made assurances that Texas’ power infrastructure was prepared for the winter storm, but those assurances proved to be devastatingly false. The lack of preparedness and transparency at ERCOT is unacceptable, and I welcome these resignations. The State of Texas will continue to investigate ERCOT and uncover the full picture of what went wrong, and we will ensure that the disastrous events of last week are never repeated,” Gov. Abbott said Tuesday.

In a conference held Wednesday from the State Emergency Operations Center in Austin, Gov. Abbott said ERCOT must be overhauled with the legislature beginning investigations starting Thursday, Feb. 25. He said the legislature is working to add power to the grid and is making a legislative priority to winterize the state’s power infrastructure because power generation from all sources failed during the severe winter weather.

“No words can fix what happened or ease the pain that you endured. But I assure you this: this legislative session will not end until we fix these problems. And we will ensure that the tragic events of the past week are never repeated,” Gov. Abbott said Wednesday. “Your safety is my top concern. I pray that God continues to bless you all.”

ERCOT called for rotating outages Monday, Feb. 15, because the weather conditions caused energy providers across all types to go offline. The organization announced Friday, Feb. 19, that outages were no longer necessary.

“There is enough generation on the electric system to allow us to begin to return to more normal operating conditions,” ERCOT Senior Director of System Operations Dan Woodfin said.

In the release last Friday, ERCOT said the electric utilities were continuing to address the power supply problems in the state. The organization suggested those with power outages contact their electric provider.

In the release Friday, ERCOT said the electric utilities were continuing to address the power supply problems in the state. The organization suggested those with power outages contact their electric provider.

With winter weather hitting most of the week two weeks ago and Texans struggling to keep their homes warm, Gov. Abbott last Saturday called an emergency meeting with Lieutenant Gov. Dan Patrick, Speaker Dade Phelan and members of the legislature to discuss the spikes in energy bills following the winter weather.

“It is unacceptable for Texans who suffered through days in the freezing cold without electricity or heat to now be hit with skyrocketing energy costs,” Gov. Abbott said last Saturday, Feb. 20. “To protect families, I am actively working with the Lieutenant Governor, the Speaker of the House and members of the Legislature to develop solutions to ensure that Texans are not on the hook for unreasonable spikes in their energy bills.”

A release last Sunday from Gov. Abbott’s office stated the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC) has issued a temporary cease on customer disconnects for non-payment and will temporarily restrict providers from providing invoices. The pause is meant to give the state the time it needs to address the energy bills and develop a solution.

The PUC announced last Friday in an emergency open meeting that they will be conducting an investigation into the factors which combined with the winter weather to disrupt the flow of power in the state. The commission approved steps to protect retail electric customers from the financial burden of this event.

“The immediate impact of this terrible weather was the loss of power for millions of Texas households and the financial aftershocks could be devastating,” PUC Chairman DeAnn Walker said Sunday. “We must act swiftly to discover not only how this crisis came together, but also take meaningful steps to protect electricity customers.”

Last Sunday, the PUC issued orders to immediately suspend disconnection for non-payment until further notice, including ordering utilities not to process for disconnection. The organization also ordered the continuation of the COVID-19 measures where retail electric providers are required to offer deferred payment plans to customers when requested.

The commission also urged retail electric providers to delay invoicing for residential and small commercial electricity customers, which included invoices with estimated meter reads.

“Our absolute top priority as a commission and a state is protecting electricity customers from the devastating effects of a storm that already affected their delivery of power,” Chairman DeAnn Walker said last Sunday. “The order and directives are intended to be temporary, likely through the end of this week, to address the potential financial impacts that are especially challenging during this extremely difficult time.”

The PUC released Wednesday that they opened an investigation into the business practice of retail electric providers whose plans with pricing based on electricity wholesale rate are reported to have dispersed high bills on state customers.

“While the architecture of these indexed plans are theoretically allowable under state law and Commission rules, an influx of complaints into our Customer Protection Division has caused concerns that questionable business practices might be exacerbating the situation,” Thomas Gleeson, PUC Executive Director wrote in the release. “As the Legislature commences its exploration of the factors that combined with this natural disaster to cause outages across the state, we are responding to the economic impacts on individual Texans by investigating issues related to those consumer complaints including possible violations of the PUC’s rules on disclosures.”

PUC said customers of municipally owned utilities, electric co-ops and retail electric providers with fixed price or variable price contracts across the ERCOT region will be largely unaffected by a “scarcity-driven increase in the wholesale market price for electricity.” This investigation will be on top of the grid investigation which have both been added to the PUC’s open meeting Wednesday, March 3.